


The Journey Home

by wholeo9



Category: The Martian (2015), The Martian - Andy Weir
Genre: Gen, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-10-18 15:48:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10620093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wholeo9/pseuds/wholeo9
Summary: Mark Watney survived over a year alone on Mars. Can he survive the journey home?





	1. Chapter 1

Mission Day 688 aka Sol 550

I’m having a really hard time differentiating Mission Days and Sols…I’ve gotten so used to Sols. Good thing I never have to remember another Sol again. I love you Mars, but you kept trying to kill me so I’m going to have to quit you.

Taking a shower again was not as fun as I had hoped. Not only did I have to contend with broken ribs, but being on Mars for so long has made the Hermes artificial gravity feel like I was carrying a ton of bricks. I thought I was going to pass out in the shower. I kind of miss that 0.4 gravity. With a few weeks (and hitting the gym) I’ll adjust. That’s if Johansson stops hogging the treadmill.

I really missed my friends. It’s like going to a high school reunion and then spending the next 6 months with them! So much to catch up on. And my Botany experiments on Hermes! I get to do those again.

The first thing I did after recovering from the shower was write a few emails to some friends and family. I hate to sound like a momma’s boy but I miss my mom. I can’t wait to tell her about blowing up the hydrogen. She’d get a kick out of it. Afterwards, I hung out in the rec room with Vogel, Martinez, and Lewis while they explained this steely-eyed missile man, Rich Purnell (who saved my life by the way!). It was fun hanging out with people again. Not that I don’t love journal entries, it’s just great to talk to real human beings again. I now plan on sleeping for two days straight in a real bed with no threat of Mars trying to kill me.

Life is good.

 

Mission Day 688-2

Insomnia is a bitch.

 

Mission Day 688-3

If I wrote comics, Aquaman wouldn’t control whales. Or Dolphins. Because I understand logic.

 

Mission Day 688-4

Where’s that Vicodin?

 

Mission Day 691

It’s great to be back to my usual routine. After my little bout with insomnia, I managed to get a good nights sleep and felt pretty good. Ribs are still hurting but acceleration vision went away and I don’t drink anymore. I spent most of yesterday repairing the reactor. These people make great astronauts but terrible engineers. The reactor was in shambles. While repairing the flow regulator, Commander Lewis scuffed at me when I pulled out the duct tape. If she only knew how many times it saved my life. It’s the greatest invention since the wheel! It was only a temporary fix until I could replace the whole unit. I’m sure if I had left the duct tape, it would’ve held all the way back to Earth. I should probably just leave it but commander Lewis might kill me. I’ve lived a dangerous life already, time to play it safe.

I then moved on to the ion engine and purged it’s capacitors. The argon gas levels are still pretty good so we won’t run out of fuel anytime soon. We could probably do another slingshot and still have fuel left over.

I spent the rest of the evening reading emails and messages from people all over the world. It seems I’m a celebrity now. Some of the messages are outrageous but others were really heartfelt. I also got an email from the President of the United States the day I got back. She wants to have a dedication ceremony when I return. Yikes. What should I wear?

Mission Day 692

Oops. The duct tape on the reactor tube didn’t last long. I ended up replacing the whole section sooner than I planned. Commander Lewis was singing ‘told ya so’ for over an hour. How sophomoric. At least she hasn’t been playing disco music much lately. Johannsen says she’s been tame. Lies.

So this morning, during our data dump from NASA, we got comments back from the rescue report. NASA was not pleased with my 'Iron Man’ maneuver to get to the ship. They said it was too risky. But I’m here right? So I don’t get why they’re complaining. Always trying to control every situation. They don’t know what it’s like up here. You can’t predict every single scenario. Sometimes, you just gotta science the shit of things.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

 

_Mission Day 694_

 

Beck and Johannsen are that overly PDA couple that makes you want to gouge your eyes out. It’s kind of cute…but also kind of gross. Commander Lewis might be about ready to throw them out the starboard airlock. That would be kind of fun to watch…not going to lie.

 

Other than Martinez’s unfunny jokes, it’s been pretty quiet these last few days. We’ve had our usual tasks but at this point, it’s becoming second nature. NASA still has me on light duty. Which is annoying. I feel fine! But the physicians think I need more time to acclimate back to socializing. I mean, I get it. Being trapped on planet by yourself thinking you’re going to die does not bode well for the human psyche. I do often think about the “what if” scenario. What if the Hermes wasn’t able to rendezvous with the MAV? What if I just kept floating in space? Thinking about that is what really makes it surreal.

 

Okay, back to reality. I’m alive. I’m well. I’m on the journey home. We’ve got five months to go. I can do this. I’ll be fine.

 

_Mission Day 694-2_

 

Well shit.

 

What’s that annoying saying? Speak of the devil and he doth appear.

 

It’s true.

 

We received a data link from NASA today. They were running some secondary checks on our trajectory and noticed something odd. It seems when they calculated our second slingshot course, they didn’t take into account other solar system objects along our course.

 

Ever heard of the asteroid Apophis? You probably haven’t; let me refresh your memory. There was this mass hysteria about 30 years ago because some astronomers projected that Apophis would collide with the Earth in or around the 2030s. People went nuts. I’m talking end of days, the coming rapture, apocalypse and everything in between. Eventually, it was concluded that Apophis would come close to but would miss Earth by a wide margin. They eventually reduced its score on the Torino scale back to 1. However, it seems that little fucker is on a path to “intercept” the Hermes.

 

Literally, NASA used air quotes here.

 

That’s all they said. Intercept Hermes. Whatever that means. It seems this is going to be an interesting journey home.

 

_Mission Day 695_

 

I didn’t sleep at all last night. How could anyone?! You’re enjoying life, flying through space, minding your business and wham! An asteroid comes along and ruins your life. Not cool.

 

NASA still doesn’t have many answers for us. Either they’re telling the truth and don’t know or they do know and are trying to spare us an untimely death. Both options suck. What we do know is the size of Apophis. It’s a big bitch. Global killer. Destroyer of worlds.

I know what you’re thinking. Why not just alter our course to avoid collision? Simple solution right? Wrong. See, we used up A LOT of our fuel making attitude and altitude adjustments during my daring Mars rescue. So much so that the fuel we have left is just enough to get us into a stable Earth orbit when we get home. If we run out of fuel, we'll overshoot orbit entry and skip off the atmosphere. Or incinerate. Bye Earth. Forever.

 

There’s also the main ion engine. It’s a slow, but powerful engine just shooting ions out of our asses. But it’s fixed. It’s pointed in one direction, not omni directional like our RCS thrusters. One wrong move though and we’re goners.  

 

Commander Lewis has been so quiet. Usually, in these stressful times, we look to our Commander for strength and guidance. Don’t get me wrong, she’s doing her job, but I think she feels partly to blame. I don’t want to go down that road with her again. I already told her she did nothing wrong.

 

Okay. I have to stay positive – focused. I have a shitload of things to do today. I’m no longer on light duty so I’ve got a full work schedule today. Which is good. I need to get my mind off of our impending doom. Ha. That was funny. I don’t know why.


End file.
